| Tuesday, December 17, 2019 |
| Mississippi State and Habitat for Humanity present 11th-annual Maroon Edition home | |
 | A Starkville family will have a new home for Christmas. Monday morning, Mississippi State University officials and Starkville Area Habitat for Humanity dedicated their 11th annual Maroon Edition home to Keyana Triplett and her family. Each year, MSU partners with Habitat for Humanity to help families in the community. Triplett and her two children celebrated the dedication of their new home with family, friends, and neighbors. "This is such a great tangible example of the way Mississippi State and the Starkville community work together -- this is not just MSU people, it's not just Starkville people, it's the entire family working together," said MSU Provost Dr. David Shaw. |
| Restore Act aims at rebuilding confidence back in Coast seafood | |
 | Confidence in seafood from the Gulf of Mexico shattered in the aftermath of catastrophic events that happened within the last decade, such as the BP oil spill and freshwater intrusion from the Bonnet Carre Spillway. Now, $3 million from the Restore Act is coming to the Gulf Coast to restore that confidence. "The governor announced an approved Restore-funded project, which is the Northern Gulf Aquatic Food Research Center. That will become part of the Mississippi State University's Coastal Research and Extension Center," Dr. James Henderson explained. Anderson is a professor and head of MSU's Coastal Research and Extension Center. The seafood, caught on a daily basis, is tested to make sure it is free of contaminants. This research facility will also be able to fill a long-standing void in the seafood industry on the Gulf Coast. "Products need to be FDA certified, and that is a functionality that this new research facility will bring to the Coast. That's something that we do not have to the level that we need," Henderson explained. |
| Cadence Bank donates iPads to MSU's T.K. Martin Center | |
 | Christmas came early for Mississippi State University's T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability after recently receiving a donation of iPads from Cadence Bank. MSU said in a media release that 20 iPads were donated by Cadence Bank, which will benefit all students in the Project IMPACT preschool program, as well as other areas such as the center's IGNITE Dyslexia program. T.K. Martin Director Kasee Stratton-Gadke said technology is a critical part of the center's mission, as well as advancing quality of life and access. "There is no way to put into words the importance of seeing a child express their wants and needs for the first time. It's powerful and lasting," Stratton-Gadke said. "Cadence Bank's donation is helping us make transformational moments like this happen." Mississippi President for Cadence Bank Jerry Toney said the bank's mission has historically included supporting local organizations and non-profits through financial investments and volunteerism. |
| 'Total chaos': Tornadoes kill three, injure dozens across South | |
 | Emergency personnel across parts of the Deep South were searching for survivors amid devastation Tuesday after dozens of suspected tornadoes raced through the region, killing at least three people, tearing through homes and businesses and toppling trees and power lines. At least a dozen people were injured, and damage was reported in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Tens of thousands of power customers were dark at the height of Monday's storms. A woman was killed in Louisiana. A couple died in Alabama, where the injured included a 7-year-old child rushed to a Birmingham hospital. "It was total chaos," Lawrence County, Alabama, Coroner Scott Norwood said of the destruction. "We had to make due the best we could." |
| Storms prompt closures, little else in Oktibbeha County | |
| Schools let out early and precautionary measures were made by local emergency officials in Oktibbeha County on Monday as a potentially dangerous line of storms moved through the area. While damage was reported across parts of Mississippi, the Golden Triangle was spared, with no damage reports coming in to the NOAA Storm Prediction Center by press time Monday. Out of an abundance of caution, both the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District and Starkville Christian School dismissed students early. Starkville Academy dismissed at its regular time, but all after school practices were cancelled. Additionally, Mississippi State University, the Mississippi University for Women and East Mississippi Community College all closed campuses early in advance of the severe weather threat. Oktibbeha County also stepped up its preparedness in opening the county's new safe room on Lynn Lane for those seeking shelter. |
| Monday Profile: Starkville native uses Fulbright scholarship to embark on new adventure | |
 | Morgan Villavaso is out there living her best life. Now, she just needs to keep her mother, Chrissy Poole, from "having a heart attack" in the process. Villavaso, who graduated a semester early -- in December 2014 -- from Starkville High School and recently earned a bachelor's degree in sociology from Texas Woman's College in Denton, Texas, has already traveled to Japan, Brazil and Costa Rica, mostly just for the experiences. Her newest adventure starts Jan. 1, when she will travel to Malaysia for a 10-month stint as an English teaching assistant funded by a Fulbright English as a Second Language grant. The renowned Fulbright scholarship program provides college students opportunities each year to promote international goodwill. Villavaso, now studying for the LSAT law school entry exam on top of everything else she has going, aspires to be an attorney focused on international human rights. |
| Atmos spokesman discusses gas industry at Rotary | |
| The effect of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking" on the U.S. natural gas industry was the topic of the day at the Starkville Rotary Club meeting Monday with Atmos Energy Public Affairs Manager Robert Lesley as the featured speaker. Lesley discussed the state of the American natural gas industry, focusing on the effect fracking technology has on consumers' bills. Atmos serves nearly 3 million customers in Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and other states. In Mississippi, the company is descended from Mississippi Power and Light and Mississippi Valley Gas. It covers most of north central Mississippi and the Delta, as well as areas of central and south Mississippi. Its Mississippi business is descended from Mississippi Power and Light and Mississippi Valley Gas. |
| Oktibbeha property owners, not renters, will be billed for garbage collection | |
| Oktibbeha supervisors voted unanimously Monday to bill property owners instead of tenants for house-to-house garbage collection services, and they also voted to request a full list of addresses in the county that will be billed starting January 1. The supervisors previously debated billing methods for garbage collection services in the board's October and November meetings. Currently, Golden Triangle Waste Services charges the county $62,000, or $8.12 per house. Starting Jan. 1, GTWS will charge upward of an additional $14,600 per month to account for 1,800 more residences in the county. Any residence with water and electricity in the county generates a garbage bill. The board's decision to bill property owners should address the problem of renters not paying their garbage bills, District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard said. |
| Delta families without running water 'opened a lot of eyes.' PSC looks to document water access | |
 | A little more than a week ago, the state's top utility and water services agency, promised it would find solutions to help Delta families with no access to running water. Now, it seems the Public Service Commission is moving on that promise. During a meeting Monday at the Leflore County Courthouse, officials from the federal, state and local government devised a two-fold plan to address the residents' water issues. The first phase allows for Central Mississippi Inc., the local community action agency here, to apply for a $20,000 grant to repair broken water wells, said Brandon Presley, Mississippi Public Service Commissioner for the Northern District, in a phone call with Mississippi Today. If the grant is approved, construction can start as early as January. The second phase involves meeting in February to hammer out a permanent solution that provides residents with access to their own water system. Presley coordinated Monday's meeting with Anjuan Brown, Leflore County Supervisor of District 3, who initially reached out to the community to help. |
| A Lesson From the USDA: Want to Make Workers Unhappy? Move Their Office to Another State | |
 | It's not the least popular federal agency to work for, but the Agriculture Department took a huge morale hit last year---likely because of a controversial plan that pushed many of its research scientists out of Washington and to the Midwest. At the USDA, which oversees the production and safety of the nation's food supply, overall job satisfaction declined broadly by 2.5 points, putting the department among the bottom of large federal agencies, according to a new ranking of agencies released by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service. That drop was largely driven by a plummet in the job-engagement level of employees at the two USDA research agencies that were moved out of Washington. Engagement scores, which reflect morale and satisfaction with the agency, are based on a survey of employees collected by the Office of Personnel Management. |
| Brian Dozier visits with students at USM's Dubard School of Language Disorder | |
 | World Series champion Brian Dozier visited the Dubard School of Language Disorder at the University of Southern Mississippi Monday. While on his tour, the former Southern Miss baseball player interacted with students and teachers and talked about his experience at the World Series. "We play six months in a season and the first two months we were the worst team in baseball, and then fast forward four more months we end up winning the world series," said Dozier. "So, no matter how down you get, no matter how much you fail, it only makes you better. " The visit was for Dozier to see how things are done at the school, which serves children with speech language disorders and dyslexia. "Anytime we can get somebody from outside who's been successful and is very well known to come and see our children and give them the idea that what they're doing is important," said school director Missy Schraeder. |
| DOL awards millions in grants to Mississippi organizations for youth training | |
| The U.S. Department of Labor has announced that two Mississippi organizations were awarded up to a total of $3 million in grants as part of an effort to support and expand YouthBuild programs across the country. The department awarded $1,499,999 to the CLIMB Community Development Corp. in Gulfport, Mississippi; and $1.5 million to the West Jackson Community Development Corp. in Jackson, Mississippi. YouthBuild provides at-risk youth ages 16-24 with education and occupational skill development to obtain employment in construction and other in-demand industries. Program participants learn construction skills while constructing or rehabilitating affordable housing for low-income or homeless families in their own neighborhoods, as well as other occupational skills for in-demand industries that also require real-world work experience components. Young people split their time between the occupational skills training site and the classroom, where they earn their high school diploma or equivalency degree and prepare for postsecondary opportunities. |
| Auburn fraternity suspended after violations involving alcohol and physical abuse | |
| An Auburn fraternity is being suspended for four years following violations of the University's anti-hazing policy. Delta Zeta, a chapter of Beta Theta Pi comprised of 164 undergraduate Auburn students, is being suspended for violations involving physical abuse, servitude and alcohol, according to letters obtained by The Plainsman that were addressed to past and present Beta Theta Pi members. The incidents involving alcohol and physical abuse spanned several years, according to the letters, and "defied multiple interventions from the university, alumni and General Fraternity." Ryan Powell, director of Greek Life at Auburn, did not specify how long the University was aware of the incidents involving alcohol and physical abuse. |
| After Taking Heat in Louisiana, a President Moves to a More Moderate Climate | |
 | No one has ever accused F. King Alexander of being a shrinking violet. For six years, since he took over as president of Louisiana State University, Alexander has been an outspoken advocate for public higher education both in that state and nationally. The native Kentuckian has taken on his own governor and state lawmakers, and has challenged national political leaders and even other university presidents during his tenure at the state's flagship. Now, Alexander, 56, will be leading a very different kind of institution. The Board of Trustees of Oregon State University announced on Friday that it had appointed Alexander president of OSU, in Corvallis. Alexander will take office at Oregon State on July 1, but he will step down as president of Louisiana State University in just two weeks. He will remain as a faculty member at Baton Rouge in order to complete work on a forthcoming book, The American Higher Education Dilemma: State Disinvestment, Student Indebtedness, and the Decline of Human Capital Development, to be published by the University of Illinois Press. |
| U. of Arkansas expands mumps vaccine requirements | |
| Vaccination requirements now extend to faculty and staff after a mumps outbreak on the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville campus, according to a letter from the state Department of Health. The outbreak is "expected to continue into the Spring 2020 semester," states a letter dated Friday addressed to UA faculty and staff. On Monday, health officials said 35 total cases of mumps tied to the campus have been identified since Sept. 1. Staff and faculty born in or after 1957 must show documentation by Jan. 10 of two measles, mumps and rubella vaccinations or other proof of immunity, states the letter. Otherwise, they will be excluded from work and campus activities, the letter states. UA announced the new requirements Monday. Campus employees without vaccination against mumps must "immediately" get a dose of MMR vaccine, the letter says. |
| UGA bans South Carolina tech college student who drew swastikas in dorm | |
 | University of Georgia officials recently banned a South Carolina student they say confessed to twice drawing swastikas on doors at a Russell Hall. University officials said the student's actions violated the state's anti-harassment policy. Though the student will not be charged criminally, he was banned from all UGA campuses. Though he initially denied it, the student, who attends Tri-County Technical College in Pendleton, S.C., later confessed to drawing the swastikas, said UGA. The student allegedly drew the swastikas on the weekends of UGA home games in October and November, according to UGA. Officials didn't note how the vandal gained access to the dorm. The drawings were made with an erasable ink on posters stuck on doors. After the confession, the student told authorities "he was sorry for the situation and that it was not his intentions to hurt anyone." |
| Baylor mascot's tumor treated at Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine | |
 | Judge Sue "Lady" Sloan, an American black bear who serves as one of two mascots for Baylor University, is back in Waco after receiving care from Texas A&M's Center for Veterinary Medicine. The 17-year-old bear had a mass growing near her heart that was treated by A&M veterinarians using radiation. Officials say Lady is expected to live out her golden years in relatively good health. For the past year, Baylor University has been delegating care of its two mascots -- Lady and her sister, Judge Joy Reynolds -- to a team at Texas A&M's College of Veterinary Medicine. This summer, the bears were brought to College Station to receive a routine health evaluation. According to Dr. Lauren Smith, radiation oncologist at the CVM who has been working directly with Lady, the checkup included a full body radiograph that first indicated an issue. |
| Forty years into career, new vice provost Bill Stackman returns to U. of Missouri | |
 | It's Friday night, and MU's new vice provost for student affairs is catching a game at MizzouRec. The game is a part of MU's third intercollegiate wheelchair basketball tournament of the season. Here to support student-athletes with disabilities, Stackman has had a long career as an advocate for inclusion in sports. As an undergraduate, he studied therapeutic recreation at the University of Kentucky, and his academic adviser was Stan Labanowich, the second commissioner of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. Then he came to MU for a master's degree he completed in 1982. Stackman worked as a building supervisor at the MU rec complex. At the time, he said, the building had facilities for only basketball, track and racquetball, and his chief duty was checking IDs at the door. Now, MizzouRec is a department within his division. |
| Final 2020 spending bill is kind to U.S. research | |
| Most U.S. research agencies have received healthy increases for 2020 in a spending bill that resolves a 3-month deadlock between Democrats and Republicans in Congress. Legislators released details today of how they plan to fund each federal agency for the 2020 fiscal year that ends on 30 September. In almost every case involving science, Congress agreed to give the agency an absolute increase -- and much more money than the cuts President Donald Trump had sought for some in his 2020 budget request in February. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service would get $1.607 billion, a 4.6%, $77 million reduction from fiscal 2019. Within that total, the agency's competitive grants program, the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, gets a $10 million bump to $425 million, below the administration's $500 million request. Congress also barred USDA officials from conducting any reorganization without its express consent; the move appears to be partly aimed at blocking a controversial USDA plan to alter oversight of its Economic Research Service, a key statistical office. |
| Pell Grants, NIH Get Boost in Budget Deal | |
 | The U.S. Congress on Monday released a $1.3 trillion spending deal it is expected to pass before the government shutdown deadline Friday. The deal includes a $150 increase in the maximum award for federal Pell Grants compared to the 2019 enacted level. The maximum award will be $6,345. A House appropriation document said the increase would help Pell Grants keep pace with inflation. It also includes a $25 million increase (to a total of $865 million) for the Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant program, which President Trump had proposed eliminating. Congress also plans to increase Federal Work-Study funding by $50 million, to $1.2 billion. The White House had proposed cutting the program's budget roughly in half. The measure would also increase spending on the National Institutes of Health by $2.6 billion, which advocates for biomedical research applauded. |
| NIH clarifies meaning of 'disadvantaged' in bid to boost diversity in science | |
| Wonder Drake knows how being poor can hinder someone's dream of becoming a biomedical researcher. Raised in rural Alabama by a single mother who never graduated from high school, Drake overcame those obstacles by finding mentors willing to take her under their wing. Now a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Drake has repeatedly returned that favor by participating in a National Institutes of Health program aimed at improving the diversity of the biomedical workforce. Under the program, NIH grantees such as Drake can win additional funding, called diversity supplements, to aid students from one of several groups underrepresented in biomedical research. NIH officials think that tiny slice should be bigger. So last month, the agency tweaked its definition of the word "disadvantaged" in hopes that the diversity supplements would serve a broader swath of that population. |
| The colleges and universities with the most online students in 2018 | |
| The Education Department's annual release of data about postsecondary enrollments is a font of information -- and we've already mined it for an article about the continuing (but slowing) rise in online enrollments in 2018. The proportion of all enrolled college students who took at least one online class continued to rise, edging up to 34.7 percent in fall 2018 from 33.1 percent the previous year. The rate of increase appears to be slowing ever so slightly, although online education remains the main driver of growth in postsecondary enrollments. Other organizations have published their own analyses of the federal data in recent days, including the Center for Distance Education Research on Monday. We're going back to the well today, with a look at the 100 colleges and universities that had the most students who took at least one online course in fall 2018 -- and which added or shed students from the previous fall. |
| Study: Men frame their research findings more positively than do women | |
| Men are more likely than women to frame their research findings as "novel," "unique," "promising" or otherwise positively, according to a new analysis of more than six million articles in the life sciences and academic medicine. The difference was most pronounced in the highest-impact journals in the study and associated with higher citation counts. So the finding has implications for women's career progression and gender equity overall. "Women remain underrepresented in academic medicine and the life sciences more broadly," earning less than men and receiving fewer research grants and citations than their male colleagues, the study says, citing prior research. And while the new analysis is limited in that it is observational, one mechanism that may contribute to these gender gaps "is differences in the extent to which women promote their research accomplishments relative to men." |
SPORTS
| No. 15 Mississippi State extends road win streak | |
 | Even when the shots were not falling for No 15 Mississippi State on Monday morning, the Bulldogs kept their focus on defense. In the end, MSU extended the nation's best road winning streak to 12 games with a 64-48 victory against Louisiana. Jordan Danberry had her first career double- double with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Andra Espinoza-Hunter added 12 points off the bench to lead the Bulldogs (9-2), who had their hands full in the first half. Espinoza-Hunter banked in a running 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer for a 30-25 lead. The Bulldogs held the Ragin' Cajuns to 23 points in the second half. "We have a pretty good- shooting team but we did not shoot it well," MSU coach Vic Schaefer said. "There were going to be a bunch of rebounds." The Bulldogs return to action on Thursday night in Las Vegas with a Duel in the Desert game against South Florida (7-4). |
| Mississippi State's Lee Witherspoon transformed into a breakout back | |
 | For most of Lee Witherspoon's high school career, he was known more for his track exploits than anything he did on the football field. After all, Witherspoon was the 2017 Alabama Class 4A runner-up in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.85. However, things started to change for Witherspoon when he transferred to North Jackson for his senior year. "At first I was playing DB but when I transferred schools, my coach knew that I was good at track so he decided to try me out at running back," Witherspoon said. "That was my first time to ever play running back. I'd always had track offers but my senior year is when I started to take football serious." The rest -- as they say -- is history. Witherspoon's one season at running back resulted in several Alabama high school records being shattered. "I think Lee flew under the radar a little bit," said MSU coach Joe Moorhead. "He transferred schools and didn't play full-time tailback until his senior year. I think his success last year was pretty well documented. He had 59 touchdowns and averaged almost 20 yards a touch." |
| Deputy AD/CFO Jared Benko details the Mississippi State athletic department budget | |
| Gene Swindoll writes: I recently sat down with Mississippi State athletic department Deputy AD/CFO Jared Benko and discussed the Mississippi State athletic department budget in great detail. We not only discussed the budget and the process of making it annually, but also the financial aspects of the Dudy Noble renovation project and the upcoming Humphrey Coliseum renovation project. |
| Dan Mullen says his mind's on championship for UF, not NFL | |
 | Who knows, maybe all this social media speculation about Dan Mullen and the Dallas Cowboys becomes reality at the end of the NFL season and Jerry Jones puts a call in to the Florida coach seeking to lure him to the pros, where Mullen would be reunited with Dak Prescott, his former star quarterback at Mississippi State. If that call (or any others from NFL owners seeking a new head coach now or in the near future) comes, Mullen certainly would take it. And, yes, he would listen. And, yes, he might consider a possible move. But, no, he probably would not go at this stage of his career. At least that's the impression he left on everyone Monday with his comments about the NFL and his current job at Florida. "When I said to someone who asked the other day about the NFL and I still haven't had a second to even consider it and what it would entail," Mullen said. "I don't know. I know what I have here. I love being here. I think we're building a championship program here. At some point in my life would it be something that if I wrote it all down, sat down to consider it that it would happen? But it's nothing I've even thought of." |
| Joe Burrow's Heisman speech produced $250K in donations for the hungry; 'Thank you is not enough' | |
 | The baffled president of a local food pantry sent a quick text: Just got in...catching my breath. Karin Bright had done interviews with four TV stations. National Public Radio. Two other radio stations. The local newspaper in Athens, Ohio, and Ohio University's TV and radio stations. And as she completed each interview, the donations kept rolling in, thousands and thousands of dollars at a time. Not even 48 hours had passed since LSU quarterback Joe Burrow gave his emotional acceptance speech at the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York City, fighting through tears as he addressed the poverty in his hometown. The speech stirred the creation of several public fundraising campaigns that directed donations to the Athens County Food Pantry. Bright, who has served on the pantry's board for 10 years, said the largest single-amount she could remember ever being donated was around $20,000. |
| U. of South Carolina could start selling beer, wine at sporting events next month | |
 | The University of South Carolina could begin selling beer and wine at sporting events as early as next month if a proposal wins school board approval Tuesday. Alcohol sales would start at Gamecocks men's and women's basketball games at Colonial Life Arena and then move to baseball games at Founders Park this spring and football games at Williams-Brice Stadium next fall, multiple sources told The Post and Courier on Monday. The sales, forecast to generate at least $1 million in profit in the first year, are expected to win approval from the USC board, said the sources who spoke on the condition they not be named to avoid retribution for discussing the university's plans. Elsewhere in South Carolina, The Citadel cadets of legal drinking age were able to purchase beer at Johnson Hagood Stadium football games starting with the 2018 season. |
| Sen. Chris Murphy calls for NCAA to improve athletes' health care; meeting with Mark Emmert set | |
| Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) issued a report Monday morning that calls for the NCAA to make dramatic changes in how it handles athletes' health care, including demands that schools pay for "complete coverage" of costs related to current athletes' participation in sports and unspecified "restitution" to former athletes suffering from the effects of head trauma. On Monday afternoon, the office of Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) announced that Romney and Murphy will be meeting with NCAA President Mark Emmert on Tuesday in Washington, D.C. The meeting likely will be related to the issues surrounding college athletes' ability to make money off their names, images and likenesses. Murphy and Romney recently announced the formation of a bi-partisan Senate working group related to college sports and Emmert has begun openly discussing the association's interest in Congressional action as legislators in nearly 20 states look at joining California in enacting measures that would allow athletes to make money from their names, images and likenesses. |
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